How to Become an Effective Speaker

TRAINING COURSE FOR INSTRUCTORS_____________________________________________________________________________________________

101 Ways to Improve Your Presentation(Extracted from “How to Become an Effective Speaker “ by Alexander Hamilton)

Increasing Self-Confidence

Try to imitate someone else.

Seek out every opportunity to make a speech.

Never admit fear. Never apologize or suggest you are incapable of making a talk.

If an audience did not want to speak or felt no confidence in you, you would not

have been invited.

Master yourself and your subject matter. Knowledge is power!

The person who wills to do, can do. Confidence is a state of mind. Be sure of

yourself. Be mentally determined to be the best of whatever you do.

Believe in yourself. If you don’t, no one else will.

Compile an audience profile so you are addressing a known group.

Selecting Topic Material

Never stand up to “say something”. Always have something to say and then

stand up.

Talk about matters from your own experience.

Always seek a definite response from your particular audience and select

material, which will obtain that response.

Make your purpose or response concrete, definite, timely, appropriate and

applicable. It must not be general, vague or abstract.

Your material must be vital, concrete, valid, novel and within the scope of the

audience’s experience. It must be logical and acceptable.

Quote authorities in support of your contention.

Read, listen and study to obtain material. Observe, ponder and have a healthy

curiosity about things in order to get the best material for any speech.

Assemble 55 minutes of potential material for every five minutes of delivered

speech material.

Always select your speech material with a view to finding an answer to the

question: “What can this audience do about it?”

Be original in your choice of material and topic. Avoid all platitudes.

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TRAINING COURSE FOR INSTRUCTORS HANDOUT

Organizing Your Material

Reduce the basic reasons for giving your speech into main issues. These may

be:

- Need

- Practicality

- Benefits

- Is there a better plan?

- Moral obligation

Use the outline method of preparation. This will allow you to organize main

issues with subordinate divisions of examples, illustrations, statistics, notions of

authorities, etc.

There are three sides to every possible question: your side, the opposite side

and somewhere in between, usually the truth. Organize your speech material to

seek the truth of the issue being discussed.

Remember that the informal method of speech organization is the most

satisfactory from the standpoint of favorable audience reaction. The informal

method means a speech well-prepared but not written out or memorized.

Try to avoid notes. The exception is when using complicated facts and figures

which must be absolutely correct.

If you do write a speech and attempt to memorize it, do not forget what you have

memorized. (Remember the written memorized speech and the written speech

which is read are weak).

Never take for granted that your audience is interested in you and your subject.

Always create that interest through the organization of your speech material.

Never talk unless you feel adequately prepared.

Plan your sentence with care. Use it to make the audience sit up and pay

attention.

Improving Voice and Vocabulary

Use voice control. Speak more quickly than normal at the start to unfreeze your

panic and communication. Pause . . . to add emphasis. Dropping a soft voice in

places add authority. Stop completely for 5 seconds before you make your most

important statements.

Open your mouth when you talk. Relax your jaws. Use your tongue and lips in

the making of speech sounds. Create the idea that your voice manner is careful,

easy and spontaneous.

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Speak from your diaphragm and not from your throat.

Never allow tight-lipped flatness of tone. Avoid stilted speech. Make your voice

alive, pleasant and agreeable. Your “speech personality” will depend to a large

degree on the pleasantness of your voice.

Do not slur sounds or substitute one vowel for another.

Never let your voice indicate doubt, apology or lack of confidence. Have an

enthusiastic tone and sincere manner.

Avoid argumentative style and tone, even in an argument.

Avoid a mono-pitch or sameness of tone in delivery. Strive for method of

infection in speech presentation.

Avoid nasal, high-pitched, or whining voice.

Avoid “er”, “ah”, “uh” and similar interruptive noises in your speech presentation.

If your own voice does not appeal to you, why not change it? Listen to a voice

you enjoy hearing. Mentally compare your tones with those of the other person.

Try to change.

Increase your working vocabulary. Remember that average business person has

a working vocabulary of less than 4,000 words. Add five new words every day.

Study your dictionary.

Use original, lively and interesting vocabulary. Avoid slang.

Remember the ancient Greek saying that “a beautiful thought basically expressed

is worth far more than any jewel”.

Use audio visuals as they appeal to both sides of the brain. While the left brain

processes your logic, the right brain admires your pictures and sounds. Keep

text visuals simple but don’t make them dominate.

Remember. . . it is difficult to sustain peak attention longer than seventeen

minutes!

Platform Conduct

Be direct. Look at your group, not at the floor, ceiling or walls. Looking at their

shoulders or ears is less challenging but still appear personal.

Do not move aimlessly on the platform.

Use body language carefully. Never have unnecessary action. Control yourself

physically. Avoid unnecessary head movement.

Slow, open gestures, palms towards audience, open arms, open hands! Yes!

they say, “Trust me”.

Keep your feet together.

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Be careful about finger movements. Avoid brisk, jabbing gestures or closed fists.

Circular sharing, open-armed movements? Yes! They say we are all in this

together.

Have a good position, one which allows you to be at ease and which avoids all

distracting mannerisms.

Avoid rocking back and forth your heels.

Be careful of your dress and personal appearance. Be neat and well-groomed

and avoid distracting jewelry.

Maintain your personal dignity at all times while speaking.

Show respect for your audience. Address individuals periodically by name.

Do not play with rings or pencils while you are speaking. Do not play with your

hands while speaking.

Smile now and then, but not in a sly or secretive manner.

Give the impression of a healthy body and mind.

Never unleash your personal feelings. The average audience resents this.

Recognize occurrences that take place in the audience or outside which might

distract your audience or interrupt your speech.

Do not continuously drink water while making a speech.

Constantly seek the “yes response” from your audience.

Do not bore your listeners. If they read, look at watches, yawn or fall asleep

while you are speaking, it is time for you to go home.

Create the idea that you are having a good time making speech.

Never thank an audience with a mechanical “thank you” at the end of your

speech. Express thanks graciously. What you say is only half as important as

how you say it.

Avoid artificial salutations.

Always tie your speech in with what he has gone before.

If you wear glasses, remove them while speaking. Most glasses reflect

auditorium lights. If removing glasses would cause nervous headache, eye strain

or difficulty reading notes, wear them or switch to contact lens.

Use the Socratic method of argument – questions and answers – to increase

audience participation in the speech you are making.

When you are through speaking, sit down.

Gaining and Holding Interest

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Do not try to talk if someone is walking down the aisle. Wait until he or she has

been seated before continuing.

Do not attempt to compete with people talking in the audience.

Recognize the heat and ventilation problems of an audience.

Walk to the platform in a manner in keeping with the spirit of the occasion.

Pause before you start to speak.

Stage props, judiciously, used or referred to, can be attention-catching devices.

Never permit glaring lights, such as footlight or overhead border, to be focused

on you unless you are wearing make-up with theatrical attire.

Use humor as a means of relaxing the audience. A funny story, in good taste,

will help. It may be the thing which will arouse audience interest.

Refer to individuals in the audience, calling them by name.

For most speeches, get right to the point – usually with three sentences of the

start.

When possible, mingle with the audience before you speak.

Make sincere and friendly overtures to your audience.

Do not be afraid to have a good advertising beforehand about your speech.

Do not disclose your entire speech at the start. Develop one point at a time.

Use suspense to hold attention and have a strong climax to each element of

suspense.

Use human interest material – stories and illustrations of common people,

common events.

Constantly vary your form of theoretical discourse. (Use narration, exposition,

description, argumentation).

Have your description full of “color” words.

Use concrete rather than abstract terms.

Use short words in place of long ones.

Reduce statistical information to a common element.

Use charts and diagrams to make your material clearer as an aid in getting

attention.

Use short sentences.

Pause after making an important point. When the point has “sunk in”, clinch it,

just as an actor clinches a scene.

Always talk so that you can be heard easily by all people in the audience.

Use figurative language – the simile, the metaphor, the analogy, personification,

the parable, the allegory.

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Use balanced and parallel sentence structure. Use interjections and

exclamations.

Use dramatization to gain and hold attention.

Use the elements of oral expression intelligently, varying your pace, force and

quality.

Be natural. Never become wooden and stereotyped.

Always create the conviction in your audience that your selection of the particular

speech is the result of in-depth consideration on your part.

The best speakers are always the best listeners.

Remember the definition of public speaking: The oral expression of an idea for

the purpose of eliciting a desired response from a given analyzed audience.

Be yourself! It is easier – and far more satisfying – than trying to be someone

else.

And the 102nd advise for someone who wants to be an effective speaker –

whatever occasion – practice your speech until you have perfected it! Good luck

and may you gain confidence in any public speaking you may find yourself in. `

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How to Become an Effective Speaker